Why Your “Fan”tasies Suck for Anime Culture

First of all, if you are sexually aroused by the above image, you probably won’t want to read the rest of this article because I am calling you out. That’s right, it’s time for my critique on anime fandom. Above image has so many things wrong with it that, hopefully, by the end of this article you will be enlightened on. Anime fandom sucks. Pretty much every show that has ever been good, tried to be good, or sucked from the start has a group of fans that make it a waste of time to watch if not only for the fans. Lets get right into the first problem with anime fandom and this is that

YOUR YAOI FANDOM SUCKS FOR ANIME CULTURE

The problem here isn’t that you are taking two completely heterosexual characters (alright, so maybe Izaya is questionable, above) and making them gay for each other. The problem is that you are creating an entire fandom based on a twisted fantasy vision you had in your sick mind. Eventually, this fantasy becomes widespread and it gets to the point that everyone just assumes that their fantasy is a reality. You end up with a twisted vision of the characters that were once (usually) mortal enemies, that, for some reason, are now wanting to bang.

It wouldn’t be so bad if this were the only effect, but it gets worse. The more this yaoi pairing becomes mainstream the harder it is for actual fans – yes, your sick fantasies make you into a fake fan – to get around it. I’ve been at several conventions where cosplaying a character with another guy immediately meant that I was expected to be gay and that, potentially, I would get my ass smacked by some faggot carrying around a yaoi paddle. I guess the main thing is that if yaoi is your thing, then stick to the plethora of shows that have yaoi undertones (or are blatantly homosexual) – don’t force your ideal into the mainstream. Watch some Gravitation, or better yet, Number 6, which is actually a relatively decent anime with pretty strong yaoi undertones. And it’s not so much that I care about you having your fantasies for yourself, but the yaoi fanbase of some anime has ruined series. Durarara!!, Tiger and Bunny, Naruto, and Kingdom Hearts have met a similar fate – the fans have turned the series into their dreams of yaoi love. Yuri fans tend to stay detached enough to keep their indulgences to themselves, so please learn from your fellow fetish friends and stop forcing it on the anime population as a whole!

YOUR PROJECTED RELATIONSHIPS SUCK FOR ANIME CULTURE

I know I’m hitting on the Naruto fanbase pretty hard here, but that’s because the Naruto fanbase sucks. My point here is really more of a blanket point for my previous point, because most of the poorly projected relationships are yaoi ones, seriously. Honestly, the Naruto and Sakura relationship pairing isn’t one that really makes me rage because there are some actual canon moments that promote the idea of it, but whenever relationships are imagined out of nowhere and then become a mainstream thing it becomes a problem. I try to stay away from this kind of fandom at all costs because it can really be annoying to see people assume a relationship is intended whenever two people are together for more than a minute in a scene. If we can’t have drama between characters without someone trying to imply a relationship, then I guess its time to start watching shows without any relevant character interactions (like K-On).

YOUR SELF-IMPLIED AFFILIATIONS SUCK FOR ANIME CULTURE

Look, not everyone is a Shinigami, not everyone is an Anbu, not everyone is an Akatsuki, not everyone is a State Alchemist, not everyone has a Death Note, and just to reiterate NOT EVERYONE IS A DAMN AKATSUKI. It’s not so much that there’s really any harm to fantasizing about character belonging to organizations that they don’t, it’s that, when you do, you inspire others that may be less intelligent than you to listen to your fantasies. I won’t even get into how many times I’ve seen characters that are not any of the above thrown into the bucket with people that are part of the above. It just doesn’t work and, by implying your ideas, you are really degrading the ideas of the organizations themselves. The idea of a Shinigami is a neat one, but whenever everyone is a Shinigami it’s just not neat anymore. Anbu are a secretive organization that apparently everyone belongs to? Apparently passing the State Alchemy exam just requires you to put on a State Alchemist uniform and that’s it. The idea of having a Death Note is a ridiculous one because, since everyone has one, people can just kill each other at will. And I think the real problem here is that by making everyone an Akatsuki I think that the creators of Naruto actually listened. Those 3-4 episodes with Sasuke in an Akatsuki cloak were totally just fanservice trying to get the fans to shut up about Sasuke joining the Akatsuki. You have ruined the idea of a character searching for “true” vengeance and made him into an Akatsuki fanboy.

YOUR FAN-CRAZY OPINIONS SUCK FOR ANIME CULTURE

I don’t have a problem with loving an anime for what it is and even raving about its greatness (or raging about how much it sucks). It’s a problem when people are deluded into thinking that an anime is awesome because it has a disproportionate fanbase for its quality. You’re allowed to like your own things, but when somehow a mass opinion on something that stems in unfounded fan-ravings raises a show to another level, it’s getting ridiculous. There are plenty of shows this applies to, though you’ll mostly see the issue with shonen anime. I still don’t understand the fanbase behind K-On which is literally just a bunch of girls screwing around for 20 minutes at a time. To those who pretty much follow the crowd on fan-crazy anime ravings, watch some good anime and come back in a couple years. You’ll see that there’s a large part of anime fandom that is just going with the crowd. But don’t let the crowd ruin an anime for you, either. If that happened, I would be completely against Durarara!! at this point and that would be a complete shame.

All in all, I think that this article has alluded to a point I didn’t originally intend, but somehow brought up subconsciously on every point. Pretty much the main issue with anime culture right now is that it is so dominated by a majority fanbase that really sucks, and the problem with that is that usually these individuals will only see the fringe of anime and never really get into what makes it both an art form and a way to spend your time in a plot that is well-developed. So what I’m really trying to say here is that

3 thoughts on “Why Your “Fan”tasies Suck for Anime Culture”

LOL.. i’ve been full pleged fujoshi since 2006, but really some of yaoi pairings from mainstream anime disturb me…
let’s take an example, Al and Ed from Full Metal…. that’s a big NO…
any bleach pairings also a big no, i can’t see any males there want to targeting another males there,,, (maybe except… with colorful eyelash, i forget his name).
sometimes, for example, sunrise, put several elements to attract fans
pick codegeass, put mecha here, add CC and other boing-boing girls here, plus rolo for fujoshi, and that chibi chinesse girl (forget her name too) for one who likes moe.
the only pairing in mainstream anime that i could “ship” probably only taiga & bunny, since the hints about them kinda… a lil bit too obvious (IMO)
maybe izaya… but i cant see shizuo w\love him back, just kinda one sided love (a twisted one though)
but everything just happen in fandom, fantasy should take it for fun 😀

I think my huge problem with it all (and the reason I got on a rant in the first place) is that my friend and I are relatively active cosplayers and we somehow always tend to cosplay the pair that gets assaulted by yaoi fandom. (Izaya/Shizuo, Tiger/Bunny) So it can be pretty unwelcome when someone assumes a fabricated fantasy is reality and implies that you surely must be a couple.